Reese Witherspoon on parenting and romancing in 'Home Again': 'Being a mother doesn't make you a turnoff'

Hollywood all too often constrains actresses, pigeonholing them into conventional archetypes: Women as mothers or women seeking romance.

Reese Witherspoon acknowledges she has found a rarity with Home Again, a new romantic comedy in which she plays a 40-year-old newly single mother of two who begins a fling with a young filmmaker staying in her guest house.

“I think it’s a modern perspective that a woman in her 40s can be attractive to a 25-year-old guy,” Witherspoon, 41, told Yahoo Movies at the film’s Los Angeles press day. “Being a mother doesn’t immediately make you a turnoff. I think that’s sort of a fallacy. But if you never see that on film then you don’t think it’s possible, and it’s important.”

Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer (and produced by the first-time filmmaker’s mother, Nancy Meyers), Home Again stars Witherspoon as Alice, a woman struggling to fulfill her own career ambitions after moving her daughters from New York to L.A. following a split from her record-exec husband (Michael Sheen). On her 40th birthday, Alice befriends a trio of Hollywood newbies (Pico Alexander, Nat Wolff, and Jon Rudnitsky) and extends them an invite to crash at her place.

“I think a lot of people find themselves at a crossroads in life, particularly in their 40s, what am I going to do? What do I do next? Am I living the best version of my life?‘” Witherspoon said when asked what she found relatable about Alice. “‘Cause life is short, and you only get one of them.”